info vanished

lesplan · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:14 am Post subject:

Hi Stan

I am still losing data. I opened a support ticket and sent three files.

Eric

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

Ok, let's see if we can fix that looking at application logs.

lesplan · Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject:

HI Stan (and everyone else)

I have posted re missing file data before and I opened a support ticket. It was happening a lot before, but not so much now. It's a very frutstrating problem in that I can't seem to duplicate the bug -- it just happens randomly from time to time.

A while back you advised me to download a new updated version of MBM and I did. This has made a difference, but once in a while it still happens. Today we lost a file that had over 200 client contacts. I added a new recipient, closed the file and saved it. There was NO error message and I thought everything was OK.

A while later I opened the file again and ALL of the recipeints were GONE. The file was totally blank. This is VERY frustrating.

Anyone have any ideas?

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

It looks like the problem comes from Spotlight. Try to delete Spotlight index. There several tools that allow you to do that, Spotless and Onyx. If the problem persists you can try to use the former to deactivate Spotlight and see what happens. Note that your problem is very rare, it happens with 3 users so far including you. The two others fixed the problem successfully with the tools above. They actually gave me the solution.

lesplan · Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 5:03 pm Post subject:

HI STan

You say that
"It looks like the problem comes from Spotlight. Try to delete Spotlight index."
But I need to use Spotlight to find data on my computer. It is a very usefull component and it is part of OS X. Also, these other programs cost time and money and who knows what other problems they will cause???

I have many other programs installed and I have not lost any data due to Spotlight. Instead of me disabling or altering Spotlight, how about if you rewrite the code for MBM so this doesn't happen? If its happening to other people as well, then it seems to be a bug at your end of things. I'll venture a guess that if three people have reported it, that at least ten times that many have experienced this problem.

Cheers.

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

Yes but when you delete Spotlight index, that will force the system to recreate it. It is like with Mac OS 9 when you started up pressing a combination of keys to rebuild desktop database. The first program I gave you a link is free. It has an option to delete the index. It is simple and once Spotlight database is rebuilt the problem goes on. Of course you are free to do it or not but there is no workaround and absolutely nothing I can do in MaxBulk code. Getting a file handle from the system is *one single system instruction*, it simply fails because the system consider the file is already opened. 'GetHandle' <- failure. It is *not* a bug on MaxBulk. By the way, no more reports on this for 6 weeks so far.

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

Another way to delete Spotlight Index without using any software.

1.- Open 'System Preferences'
2.- Click on 'Spotlight'
3.- Click on the 'Privacy' tab
4.- Drag and drop your hard disk to the list
5.- Select your hard disk from the list and press '-'

The index is automatically deleted by the operating system and Spotlight will start to reindex it right away. Thanks Mark!

lesplan · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 12:02 am Post subject:

HI Stan

I followed the 5 steps. The last one says:

5.- Select your hard disk from the list and press '-'

I assume this means the '–' sign beside the '+' one at the bottom left side of the screen. When I do this, the drive that is in the list disappears. I just want to confirm that this is what is supposed to happen.

Also, how often should I do this? Is the problem fixed for good now?

Thanks again for all of your help.

Eric

salman · Joined: 24 May 2007 Posts: 1

Hi, This post is very informative, however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

Yes, the '-' button removes the hard drive from the privacy list. That means the drive will be again included for indexing by Spotlight. In other words, adding a hard drive to the list deletes its Spotlight index. Removing it from that list tells Spotlight to include it in searches and thus to index it again. You only have to do that once. That trick was sent by someone at Apple by the way.

lesplan · Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 5:43 pm Post subject:

Bad news Stan

We have two computers in the office and I did the Spotlight thing on both of them yesterday. This morning we lost a big file on the other computer -- some 1,500 contacts vanished. The file was completely empty -- AGAIN.

I have your email address and I will send you the file as an attachment.

This suggests that something else is causing the problem . . .

Any suggestions??

Eric

stanbusk · Site Admin Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 2528

No more suggestions right now. We will use new compilers in two weeks, perhaps something has been fixed by then.